בראשית תשפ״ג

00:00 Speaker 1 Good evening, and welcome to tonight's shiur. It's Parsha's, uh, very-- It's Thursday of Parshas Bereishis, Sheilas HaKochim. I'd like to dedicate this, uh, shiur to, um, to the people who need a refuah shleimah, who are usually regular participants of the shiur, Rachel bas Sarah and Rochol ben Sarah and Reb Yossef Yechiel ben Sima. They should both receive a refuah shleimah speedily. Our first question here is that someone-- It was during this past Sukkot. Now, before I go into this whole list of Sukkot questions, you may be asking, "What's the value of learning about Sukkot now?" And the-- My son participated in a course for shluchim, and they were advised by one of the rabbonim that if you have a shailah, look it up. If you don't have an, a answer, do what you do. But then after Shabbos or Yom Tov, ask the question to someone who's qualified so that next time it may come up again. So possibly these things will come up again, and so we'll know the halacha. So question number one. Having lit Shabbos candles, so you've already been Mekabel Shabbos, and it's Halal Moed, and you realize, "Oops, I didn't bench lulav this morning." Can you now go and bench lulav, or do you say, once you've made it laylo, once you've made it, accepted it, it's night, so you can't go back and make it into day again? This is the question. So what we have here is two sources. One is on the lower left of the screen,

01:57 Speaker 1 a quote from the Aruch HaShulchan. Sorry, Kaf HaChaim quotes Aruch HaShulchan, where he says that if it's on Shemini Atzeres, it's already got into bein hashmoshos, it's after sunset, then you would not be allowed to take the lulav because the lulav is muktzeh. So whilst you may want to say, "Well, perhaps I can hop around and do lulav," on the other hand, would be a violation of muktzeh. So he says, "No, you don't take the lulav." And this is the Aruch HaShulchan. And to this, the, uh, Kaf HaChaim adds the same thing. Shabbos, Friday night in, during be-- uh, uh, during Sukkot would be the same problem. That it-- because it's muktzeh, that you wouldn't be allowed to pick it up. I just want to clarify something. That in muktzeh, we have sometimes you are allowed to move something for a different, for a th-- like, like you're allowed to move a hammer to use it as a paperweight or to use it as a, keep as a door open, et cetera. That's called l'tsorech gufa yomakom. So you're allowed because you-- So you could improvise with a hammer, and therefore, you are allowed to move it, l'tsorech gufa yomakom. That doesn't work for the lulav because you're not allowed to improvise with the lulav. There's nothing you're allowed to do with the lulav, and therefore, the lulav is more muktzeh than a hammer. Again, Shabbos during Ch-- during, um, Sukkot, the lulav and esrog is more muktzeh than a hammer, a screwdriver, et cetera.

03:27 Speaker 1 It's, it-- You wouldn't be allowed to move. So b-- Having said that, that once it's already after sunset, you wouldn't be allowed to misafek, pick up the lulav and esrog. What we're now dealing with is, though, that you lit candles, or it could be a man who for whatever reason wasn't Mekabel Yom Tov earlier on, and now wants to switch and say, "No, well, perhaps it's still, it's still the day rather than night." So I've had a similar question. I've dealt with this in the past with a, uh, someone who does a lot of hiftzo. And one of the things which he likes to do, or does, is in this part of the world, a shiva house. It's a place. Some don't know shiva. Some don't know shiva. But people, a lot of people attend a, a, a shiva house. So he would go to shiva houses and help the people there to put on tefillin with them. And someone turns to him, "Well, that, that man's just davened Ma'ariv, and now you're putting on tefillin with him." I wonder whether the person did daven Ma'ariv. He didn't put on tefillin. Did he daven Ma'ariv? But, you know, I don't know these people so well, so it's possible. It could be he davened Ma'ariv and, uh, hasn't put on tefillin. So can you put on tefillin after you've davened Ma'ariv? So here we have on the screen, we've got here from the Alter Rebbe's... Well, first from the Shulchan Aruch, of the Beis Yosef, Kara,

04:56 Speaker 1 and then from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. And this is in Siman Lamed. "Ve'yesh misheomer." That if you've davened Ma'ariv early, mid odayim, and you haven't put on tefillin, "Ein lehi lezaniach acharach." You shouldn't be putting on tefillin after you've davened Ma'ariv. This is wr-- This is the source of this psak, is from the Terumas Hadeshen, Rabbi Yisroel Isserlin. Um, just people like to hear a little bit of these, hear him biographical details. He wrote a-- It's a Shalas of Shuvus, but he wrote the questions himself. He put together three hundred and fifty-four questions and answers, the same Gematria as the word Deshen, and hence he gave the name Terumas Hadeshen. So he, he, in his responsa, he says that once you've already made it night, you can't switch back and put on your tefillin and make it day. The Alter Rebbe, in the same Siman, in Siman Tof, T-- sorry, in Siman Lamed, he says that-- If we follow, he first quotes the first opinion. He says, "One who forgot to put on tefillin all day and he realized after Ma'ariv, and but it's still early, but it's still before, um, nightfall, before, uh, before Shkiah." So he says that others who cannot, who say you cannot put on tefillin because once you've made it, um, night- And then I'm not sure why he adds in the brackets, "zman shchivah." You say, "Shma." So it's called night. It says sleeping time because Shma said, "Beshoah b'chor." And Tefillat shel Arvit, I'm not sure what

06:32 Speaker 1 the, the background for that whole bracket is. But he has, once you've made it night, how can you put on Tefillin and make all day again? So it's, it's contradictory. But in the last line, the Alter Rebbe adds, "V'yesh mishi choleh kal zeh, v'tuy v'lo chush l'svaroh acharei." Now, those who disagree with the Trumat Hadeshen, and they say, "Even though you personally have made it night, layla, that means that you have-- that's your own behavior that hasn't changed it into layla objectively, and then you can still, and you should still put on Tefillin." In the Kuntres Acharon, the Alter Rebbe gives a reference there to the Shah in Siman Kuf Tzadik Vav who deals with a Hefsek Tahara. If a person has started Shabbos earlier, doing a Hefsek Tahara afterwards, so normally a Hefsek Tahara one would do before, but if it was afterwards, you can still, uh, do it because, in other words, although you have cosmetically, should we call it, called it layla, but it doesn't change it objectively. It is still Yom, it's still day, and you can do the mitzvahs which are associated with the day. Um, I have sources, and I've written about this in the Sivim, in Besli Hashlichas Chelek Beis, addressing this point of, of this, uh, sha'al with the Tefillin about not saying a bracha. Because once you've made it layla, okay, the Trumat Hadeshen says it's, you cannot. So I guess for, because of that, because we have a bit of a suffix, so coming back

08:07 Speaker 1 to the lulav, you've been Mekabel Shabbos, or you've been Mekabel Shemini Atzeres, and you haven't benched lulav, so do bench lulav, but don't make a bracha. The reason being that according to some Poskim, uh, once you've made it night, you can't, um, just, uh, make it back into day, a day again. So it shouldn't be too kul- I'm not sure, I'm not sure how you read it. I think it's treshtei kolos, shasosa says, like two voices. One minute you said ma'ariv, and now you're coming back and saying a bracha, which is saying it's Yom, and those voices shouldn't be there. So all right, so you do the mitzvah, but we don't, we don't say a bracha. Let's go on to the next question. Interesting question. Someone came over to me one day during Chol HaMoed in shul, and he says it was-- we were up to Mussaf or around there, or perhaps even afterwards. He says he just realized. He rushed out of the house. Now, in Chabad, it is to bench lulav in the morning, in, at home, in your sukkah at home, uh, and then, um, and then to come to shul, and you, you, you use a lulav for Halel and for, uh, for Hoshana Rabah. So he had rushed out of the house with his lulav in hand, lulav and esrog in the box, but then he used it for Halel and Hoshana Rabah, and then he realized, "Oops, I didn't, I didn't make a bracha." So can he make a

09:30 Speaker 1 bracha now? This is his question. So here we have, um, in Toff Rish Nun Alef. That is the Siman which talks about the putting the lulav together and the bracha on the lulav. Unfortunately, the second part of that Siman, uh, is not extant in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. So this part of the Shulchan Aruch is not-- We don't have the Alter Rebbe's position about this. So what you have here, the Mishnah Berurah in Siman-- in Seif Katan Chof Vav says, "If you forgot to make a bracha before picking up the lulav and esrog, you can still, they say, the bracha later." Because so long as you're still going to sway it, you pick up the lulav. So we know everyone has, you know, we're familiar, we try to avoid this question about, um, a bracha has to be ovel ha'ziyyon before the mitzvah. So once you've picked up the esrog, you've done the mitzvah. That's why people hold the esrog upside down. In Chabad, we hold the lulav, and we say the bracha whilst the esrog is on the table, and then we make a-- pick up the esrog to avoid this question of ovel ha'ziyyon. Mishnah Berurah's saying, "B'di eved, if you already picked up the esrog, but you haven't swayed it in that, various directions, then you can still make the bracha." There are those who say that if you, here you've got lower down, you've got the Nanuiim at Halel. That's still also considered part of the mitzvah. There are, uh,

10:56 Speaker 1 that you can still say a bracha if you haven't done Nanuiim at Halel. The Kurei Yaakov, Yaakov Ettlinger, he was, he wants to say even the, um, the, um, swaying the lulav at Hoshana Rabah is also part of the mitzvah. So there are those who say that even though you've already picked up the lulav and the esrog, you've already fulfilled the mitzvah, but still, there's still extensions of the mitzvah which you haven't done yet. You can still make a bracha. Um, but once the person has done everything, already done, gone through Halel and done, and gone through Hoshana Rabah, so the mitzvahs, so he's done the mitzvahs of all this. So then, and he didn't make a bracha, you can't go back and make a bracha because you have completed the mitzvah. Bracha is einon me'akris. Um, I've, I once had a case. I was by a Pidyon Haben, and the father standing next to the Kohen, he put the coins, coins in the Kohen's hand, and then, oops, he hadn't said the bracha yet. Can you take the money back and put it back in the Kohen's hands? You know, that, that was, that's, that, the same, same problem. That once the mitzvah is completed, you can't go back and say a bracha. That's the, uh, that's the, that's how the Rambam holds. There are those who disagree. Uh, there's a Or Zarua who says you can make a bracha after, after the act. Or Zarua in Siman Chof He. Um- But, uh, the

12:28 Speaker 1 general, the psak which I see from the Alter Rebbe, et cetera, is like the Rambam, that a berakhah has to be o medah rasah. And once the act of the mitzvah has been done, you can't now say a berakhah. Right. Let's now move on to a question which came up a couple of years ago, but it came up again now. When making Kiddush on what's called chamer medinah, the local equivalent of wine. Let's say I'm making Kiddush on, on, uh, beer or, or vodka or, or whiskey or a cup of coffee. Um, I've mentioned this before. The-e-e... There was-- I, I think it was Rabbi Zichron Elazar Shalom who was sent to Vietnam or Korea somewhere in the nineteen-- nineteen fifty approximately. And the Rebbe told him that he sh-should make Havdalah on a cup of coffee. So coffee is also called a chamer medinah. Fine. So the question here is, do you say Leshev Basukkah at Kiddush or at Hamotzi? So just to ex-explain the question. In-- The way it appears in Shulchan Aruch is at night, you'd say Leshev Basukkah with the berakhah, uh, right after Kiddush. But, uh, by day, you'd say Leshev Basukkah on the, uh, on the bread. Call from Bobby Hu. However, Minag Chabad is that we say the berakhah Leshev Basukkah together with the berakhah of the wine by Kiddush-- at the Kiddush of daytime too. Now, the question is... Okay, so Kiddush by day, you're making Leshev Basukkah at Kiddush. Is that because of the wine or

14:26 Speaker 1 is it because of the privilege of Kiddush? What's, what's the, what's the, uh, factor here? So here you have in front of you two reshimas of the Rebbe. One is from the year Taf Resh Tzadik Alef, which would be nineteen thirty. And the second one, the lower one, is from Tzadik Gimel, which is nineteen thirty-two. So in nineteen thirty, Tzadik Alef, the Rebbe writes, "I made Havdalah on wine. And Sivani, my father-in-law, the Friediker Rebbe, told me to say Leshev Basukkah at Havdalah." In the bracket, he adds, "But there was also, when we made, uh, Leshev Basukkah at Havdalah, there was the intention to presently eat Sudas, the, the evening meal, in the Sukkah. Therefore, it wasn't only for the Havdalah, it was also antici- in anticipation of the evening meal in the Sukkah. I'm gonna go to the lower quote from ni- from Taf Tzadik Gimel. Taf Tzadik Gimel. Um, "I made Havdalah in the Sukkah," says-- writes the Rebbe. And I asked, what about saying Leshev Basukkah? Which I'm curious why he asked a second time. Because if we've already been told in Tzadik Alef that you'd make a Leshev Basukkah, why ask again? But anyway, "I made Havdalah in the Sukkah, and I asked the Friediker Rebbe yes to say a berakhah or not. To which he answered, "Al dvar Kiddush." In reference to Kiddush, saying Leshev Basukkah, we heard explicitly from his father, from the Rebbe Rashab, to say Leshev Basukkah at Kiddush. First time it was in the year Taf

16:09 Speaker 1 Reish Nun Tes. The second day of Sukkah, Simchat Bet Hashoeva, and it has something which I not fully understand, uh, what he's talking about. Well, he referred to something which happened then. I don't know. Yeah, so given-- I'm not sure. Then he says, "Al-- Havdalah," Friediker Rebbe says, "Since you're making Havdalah on wine." And, "Achar kaik haraynu yeikhil, and we're going to eat the meal subsequently." Um, food which is-- so, and he replies, "Leshev Basukkah. Therefore, you should say a berakhah, awal b'hashoe, to keep it quiet." Interesting. So you have here making H- Leshev Basukkah at Havdalah is not so glad. It's com- in combination to the fact that you're gonna eat supper of Lav HaMalki presently. And even that, he seems to be saying, "Don't make a pirsum." Okay. That's interesting because in-- until the reshimas came out, this was not in Minhag Chabad. Look at Sefer Haminhagim, there is no mention of saying Leshev Basukkah at Havdalah. Possibly because of the awal b'hashoe. Now, coming back to the, uh, first, uh, quote. So now he writes, "In the year-- In Atvotsk, in the year Tzadik Zayin," this is in s- nineteen thirty-six. "This time he made Havdalah on beer, and the Rebbe told me not to say Leshev Basukkah." So meanwhile, what we're seeing is Havdalah, even though you're gonna have a meal soon, but not to say Leshev Basukkah unless it's wine, and there's also-- there's a me- a meal coming up. By contrast with the Kiddush, he just says what you

17:50 Speaker 1 make of Leshev Basukkah at Kiddush does not differentiate whether it's wine or not. And if you're gonna ask what's the difference between W- a Kiddush and Havdalah, the answer is very simple. That Havdalah does not necessitate a meal thereafter. It's a standalone. Kiddush is-- has to be more, more comme sudor. It's associated with a meal. And therefore, the follow-on of the meal is kind of, uh, intrinsic to, to Kiddush. Therefore, Leshev Basukkah is kind of leading into the meal. And therefore you'd make a Leshev BaSukah at Kiddush even if it is, I, um, I believe, even if it is, uh, Chamor Medinah. Last week we had a discussion about, about whether to make Leshev BaSukah a few-- for the other members of the family. Should they make Leshev BaSukah, uh, separately later? And a lot of people have come back to me and said, "Indeed, that's what they have been doing in their families." That the women or other, uh, members of the family who are not making Kiddush will make their own Leshev BaSukah. So, I mean, I'm, I'm happy to accept that as your personal family Minhug. I wouldn't label it as the Chabad Minhug. Um, and what... What I'm, I'm hearing though is from families of Talmidi Chachamim, that they would make a point that if the women are making Leshev BaSukah... One woman writes to me that, um, she's saying going back 50, 60 years ago, that the, the Sukkot used to be much smaller. People couldn't necessarily, uh, um, people

19:37 Speaker 1 lived in smaller dwellings and didn't have the big Sukkot. And it was very rare for women to join the men in the Sukah. Just as, as... And so what the women would typically be coming into the Sukah, uh, and they would want to at least for them make a Beracha Leshev BaSukah. They want to have the privilege of making the Beracha. But then they would make a point of davka sitting down and having a shir. And a shir, as I mentioned last week, is a bit more than the volume of the, of, of an egg. And then they would go back into the house. All right, let's go on. So just to summarize that, I, I believe that if even if you're making Kiddush, not on wine, but on Chamor Medinah, you'd also say Leshev BaSukah, uh, at Kiddush. Because Kiddush itself is kind of lending itself to a Kviyus because it's, it is connected to the meal which follows on. Let's move on. Okay. So, um, I'd written an article in the local Jewish Tribune, and one of the readers sent me the question. I was explaining the difference between-- We were talking about, um, Daif HaNakumah. And when you have a-- In particular, we're talking about a case of a person in a very, a very narrow balcony. Just about the size for a Sukah, but then you had a jutting out gutter. So there's this balcony, which let's say is eight Tefachim wide, but there's a gutter which is jutting out six...

21:06 Speaker 1 Uh, uh, sorry, ju-jutting out two Tefachim, three Tefachim. So is the Sukah kosher? So the, the answer is the Sukah is kosher, and according to mo-most Poskim, you're allowed to even sit under the gutter. So now he's asking, okay, so if I've got a protrusion from the wall of three Tefachim on the side of the, of the Sukah, I'm allowed to sit under it. If I have a protrusion which is three Amos, so we have the, what we call the concept of Daif HaNakumah, but we say you're not allowed to sit under it. You can't... You're not Yoitzu Sukah if you sit under the Daif HaNakumah. So he's asking, what about the first three Tefachim? If three Tefachim of the gutter, I, I... You, you get away with, you can sit under it, what about the first three Tefachim of, of a larger stretch? Do you have the same concession? And obviously, we've never heard of such a thing. And so what's the reason? Why, why, why is there a concession for three Tefachim of a gutter and not the first three Tefachim of a larger, uh, extension? The answer is very simple, and you can see here the Lashon of the Aruch HaShulchan, um, which says, what's the word of less than three Tefachim? It's because it's not Chashuv. Because it's not Chashuv, it's negligible. But once it's a larger stretch, so then it does become Makom Chashuv, and therefore the entire stretch, even the first Tefach of that stretch, is considered not Sukah.

22:37 Speaker 1 So again, if it's just a couple of Tefachim, because it's so minimal, we are-- it's negligible. But once it's part of a larger, um, stretch, so then it's a Makom Chashuv, uh, uh, which isn't Sukah, and you're not allowed to sit under it, uh, to, to be Mekayem Mitzvot Sukah. Okay. Here's another very interesting question someone asked me. A Sukah, uh, let's say you've got two Sukot. One on the upper floor and one on the lower floor, um, balconies. And I've mentioned this before, these mats are, uh, very, um, very good for picking up wind. And so the wind picked up the mat from Reuven's upstairs Sukah and lifted it, and it landed squarely on Shimon's Sukah on the lower floor. So now Shimon's Sukah is covered with Schach, which was heaven-sent. Um, now, we're not dealing with an argument between Reuven and Shimon, but Shimon's Sukah has now been covered with Schach, which was not placed there Leshem Schach. It wasn't placed there for a re-- It, it wasn't placed there manually. It was placed there automatically. And every young boy who's learnt the Mishnah knows that if you've, uh, carved out a niche in a haystack, that is not a valid Sukah because the coverage wasn't placed there Leshem Sukah. And we've got many Halakhot that the pl-- coverage of the Sukah has to be placed Leshem itself. I want to show you the following quote from the Alter Rebbe. Uh, let's read inside. The Tafresh Chovot Sif Alef. You only Yoitzu with

24:31 Speaker 1 the Sukah, She'asuyah, ein ha, ein ha, ela le'seil. The Sukah has to be made exclusively for shade. Bilvad. Over Sukkot, I read that there's a Sicha of the Rebbe, uh, in Parshas Emor in Taf Shien, in Chelek Lamed Beis, discusses this at length, the difference. And Alter Rebbe adds some words here which are not in the earlier sources. The emphasis has to be for shade. Dugmas anane hakovet. Aval im hi asuya gam l'dira. If the Sukah is made also for permanent dwelling, not just for shade. If the Sukah is made... Sorry, the Schach. If it's made for tas mashul sniyus, for, if the word is privacy, storage, other uses other than shade or if the sukkah is made to protect from zerem hamotor. If it's made to protect from rain. If the sukk- the schach was not just for shade, it's not valid because it's not a sukkah. Sukkah is just for shade. And I was very surprised to realize that for years I'd been thinking that, you know, we, we... It's to put lots of schach. And here you have a quote from Rabbi Zalman Buchman's book, uh, Leshem Ozen. Rabbi Isaac Hommel, um, Chossid of the Alter Rebbe, and he was piling up the schach more and more, and people asked him, "But you have to be able to see the stars." So he says when he was in Lyozno, he saw the Alter Rebbe saying, "Put up more schach, thicker and thicker." And the story also is that they asked, uh,

26:21 Speaker 1 what about the stars? So you poke a s- uh, put a, poke a stick through the schach and you see the stars. So for years, I've been thinking that the reason why they indulge in, in this excess amount of schach was because in the freezing cold, it would protect the sukkah from being freezing. But now I'm re- realizing, if that was the motive, that is actually raising a ques- a question on the validity of the sukkah. The sukkah must be just for shade, not for any other purpose. If it's there for another form of protection, as you see here, if it's for privacy, if it's for, um, protection from rain, et cetera, it's not valid. So there are, in the Dirshu edition, there p- other, you know, Acharonim pick up on this shlosh on the Alter Rebbe. Very strong emphasis that the sukkah has to be just for shade. Um, so I don't know. So coming back, meanwhile, why does the Alter Rebbe say to put up so much schach? And I don't, I don't know the answer to that. Um, so, so let's finish off this point. Let's come back. So this question of the schach, which was airborne and landed on Shimon's sukkah, it wasn't placed there l'shem shel. It wasn't placed for sh-shade. In Siman tof reish lamed beis, I think, Sukkas Ganach. If a goy built a sukkah out in the countryside for shade, that's kosher. But if it wasn't built for l'shem shade, then it's not kosher. So this is

28:07 Speaker 1 the question. You've now got Shimon's sukkah, which has been covered with a double layer. The upper layer being made not l'shem shade. Is that sukkah kosher? So this question was put to Rav Vosner. Um, Shevet Halevi, and this is Chelek Yud, Siman kuf, I believe. And he concludes that the sukkah is kosher, uh, because the schach intrinsically is kosher schach. But he adds another very important point, which I saw him quoted without this important point. People quote things from Sforim, and they think they're doing us a favor by making, make it brief. Very important detail he adds. That the schach hatachton is the ro'ev, and therefore there's a majority between the two layers of schach. He's, uh, he's, he's assuming or he's, he's, he knows that that case, that the airborne schach is the minority and the, the lower layer is the majority. So all right, on that basis, he says it's okay. And again, he says, only if there's nothing you can do to rectify it, then okay. Which I would say that if you could get, even on Shabbos, if you get onto the roof of the-- onto the schach and shove off the extra layer, call it muktzah, so move it . I'd say you should do that because it is presenting a problem. He's saying we can ignore it because it's a minority, but otherwise he does have a problem with it. Um, I've said this about this, people misquoting things in ref- reference to... Someone has just sent me a

29:56 Speaker 1 chat. That the that the brings that the Rebbe said to make Leishav basukkah on Havdalah, at Havdalah because it's called a kviyus. No mention about eating afterwards. That's when have, to have to have in mind that he's going to eat after Havdalah. My mechutan always has geziyes on the table for after Havdalah. Well, I think your mechutan is right. Um, myself, I must say, I must admit, I wasn't sensitive to this. But you look at the, the source again. This Havdalah in the sukkah is not mentioned in the Sefer Haminhagim. It's in the Reshimas, which were, as we know, the Rebbe's diaries, which he wrote for himself. And in both of the places where it does say about, uh, making, um, Leishav basukkah Havdalah, it adds that there is the intention to eat, um, shortly. Well, it doesn't say how long, but even if it's a couple of hours, up to a couple of hours after Havdalah. So that's, that's part of the justification for saying Leishav basukkah at Havdalah. But let's say if you are in one sukkah for Hav-- Let's say you're making Havdalah in the sukkah at the shul, and then you're gonna go home- Then I guess you wouldn't say Lecha Dodi even though you make Havdalah on wine. So by cutting out that detail, actually, uh, you missed something important. So thank you for pointing that out. Okay, let's g- move on. Um, right. So now we live and learn. And so for years I've been saying that I have

31:32 Speaker 1 a problem with blackened Aravos. And I think I mentioned last week that I picked up a Sefer and learned that they are kosher. Okay. And black is a problem only for an Esrog, but the other minim, if they're discolored, it doesn't matter. So someone heard this year and kindly sent me the following quote from the Radvaz. Sorry, what? Shall we continue today? Yes. Someone hasn't muted themself. Themselves? There we are. Okay. Problem solved. Can you hear me? Yeah. Good. So now the Radvaz, Rabdovid ben Zamro, who, um, was around the time of Rabbe Joseph Caro, perhaps a generation earlier. Um, so he is a, both a halachist and a mekubal. He has a Sefer on the mitzvahs called Mitzvas Dovid Taamei Haminzvahs. In Siman Kuf Yud Ches or Mitzvah Kuf Yud Ches, he explores the Dalet Minim with their significance of Pi Kabbalah. Uh, um, and then he says that they have d- the Aravah as being the least of the Dalet Minim, and they're very lowly, and it's got to do with... I don't know whether to use the word Sitra Achra, but he really, he really, he really beats the Ar- or, you know, really smashes the Aravah down. And he says that's the reason why we beat the Aravah. And to weaken the power of the Sitra Achra, et cetera. It says in the Gemara, "Chavod, chavod v'lo baruch." Beat it, beat it. Don't make a bracha. Then he adds, "Habeshem hochi ein ani noig leachlifu aravah kol shivah." I have a

33:25 Speaker 1 custom not to change my Aravos for the whole week. "De michmesho od yiftzei." On the contrary, if it's shriveled, it's better. And for this reason, I'm particular that the Aravos should not stick out above the Hadassim because the idea is to Lahamtik Hadin, to sweeten. The Aravos is dinim, and we want to have the Hadass, which is chesed, to sweeten the dinim, which is the Aravah. And he quotes then a pasuk, "So lo larech aravos." So whilst we've been worried about blackened Aravos, uh, the, the Radvaz actually doesn't talk about black. He's talking about shriveled. And he actually seems to, uh, say, "Well, if the Aravos are shriveled, so be it." He's, like, quite happy with that. The Shulchan Aruch, here we have it, Taf Resh Nun Dalet. Again, it's not in the Alter Rebbe. The RaMBaM writes it's customary to have every day of Chol Hamoed a new Aravah, and that's a Hiddur Mitzvah. In Sefer HaMinhagim, we have, "Bemeshech yemei Chol Hamoed," we switch the Hadassim and the Aravos, some of them or all of them or some of them. In the footnote, in the Sefer HaMinhagim, he refers us to the Shulchan Aruch over here, Taf Resh Nun Dalet. Covering the quote. And, um, it tells us to, it tells us to look up in the Taf Resh Nun Dalet. Some disagree. They're not so happy about switching the Aravah every day. People st- stick them into the bunch, and they rip off the leaves. But be that as it may, the

35:11 Speaker 1 idea of switching the Aravos is something which we do go for. And I'm saying this now, and I hope people will remember by next year. I saw on Hoshana Rabbah several people with their Lulavim and the Aravos looked very sorry. They looked quite shriveled. And in... If you look at Ohr Hachaim Chabad, you'll see that we are particular, especially for a Rav Hadass-- for a, a Hoshana Rabbah, that the Aravos should look fresh. Baruch Hashem, the Aravos are available all over. The Aravos, we are particular that Aravos should look fresh. So you see, contrary to the, um, to the, uh, uh, Radvaz, he has his view, but certainly the RaMBaM does not follow that, and Min Hachabad does not follow that. We do make a point of Aravos also being fresh. As I mentioned last time, sometimes people have got these Aravos and most of the leaves are gone, which is pasul. You can't make a bracha on it. It has to be the roiv of the leaves or the top three trochim have to be there. If most of the leaves are gone, um, the... Ah, you remember, Halacha, "Od eichad bevad eichad," one leaf and one twig. That's for Hoshana Rabbah. "Od eichad bevad eichad" is good. For Aravos, for the mitzvah of Aravah to make a bracha, it has to be roiv of the top three trochim have to be there. All right. So, um, so thank... I mean, I thank the person for this ha'arah from the Radvaz. It still remain

36:37 Speaker 1 that we should make sure that we have good condition Aravos. Um, one more thing I'd like to say. Um, I once wrote a whole article about, um, about Dovid HaMelech. In the Gemara, Sukkah talks about Dovid HaMelech. By the time they were digging out the, uh, shisin, the, the, the, um, the holes down deep in the ground by the Mizbeach. And there's a piece of earthenware. And he comes down, what's that, a phenomenal depth. And there's a piece of earthenware and says... And there's an earthenware, this Keli says, "Don't pick me up. If you do, you'll cause the world to flood." And Dovid HaMelech, as they say in Yiddish, ‹up zalochas›. He lifts up the piece of, uh, of, of Cheres, and it starts flooding. And then it starts flooding, and then he's worried that the world is gonna start being flooded over. And Achitofel is, uh, overlooking the proceedings, and he's hoping that Dovid will get drowned, and then he will become Melech instead. Um, he was the grandfather of, uh, Shlomo HaMelech, by the way. And Dovid says, "Whoever knows how to stop this and will, uh, not tell us how to stop the flood, he should be Nidui." And Achitofel is, um, intimidated by that, and he says that you should take Ash- if you could take Hashem's name and erase it in order to bring harmony between husband and wife. In the case of a sotah, sotah you should use Hashem's name to bring har- um, to, to, to quell the,

38:12 Speaker 1 uh, the flooding. And my question was: Why did Dovid HaMelech... You know, come on, you know. Why did he have to lift up that thing? It said, "Don't do it." And basically, the answer, which I, um, I thought or, or, or saw, whatever, is that he wanted to-- He's building a Beis Hamikdash. He wants the Beis Hamikdash to be able to atone even for the lowest element. And that's what this Cheres is saying. If you do this, it's going to be, it, it, it's going to be the end of the world, so to speak. And Dovid HaMelech wants to show that even if a person has done a sin which is the end of the world kind of averia, still he can get atonement. And, um, these are the aravos. Uh, let's say the aravos, yeah? But Hashem is called ‹Seilul uruch et aravot›. Hashem rides on the aravos, which the Rav also quotes this. Hashem rides on the aravos. So there are these ‹Pashute Yidden›, and they may not know what they're doing properly, but they are s- they are very precious to Hashem. So instead of the attitude of the Rav, who's saying, um, "Let them be shriveled," no, actually, we have a special, uh, ‹chibah› on it, and, uh, we want the aravos actually to be in good condition. I want to just finish off this point. There is an old Jewish joke book which somehow achieved the status of a Sefer. And he says, uh, a quote, "Why do you beat

39:39 Speaker 1 the aravot on Hoshana Rabbah? He's been in such good company. For a whole week, he's been together with the Esrog and the Lulav and the Hadass, and he g- he, he remained the same, the same garnished. So he deserves to get a few pech. That's why you beat the aravot." As I'm saying, remember that it's not a holy Sefer, it's a joke book. To which I respond is, you can only take that attitude, yes or no, only if you're then going to pick up that aravot and put it on top of your Aron Kodesh. If you are ready to chastise, but you're also ready to invest energy to, to, to propel that person who you are c-criticizing and, and, and, uh, knocking down. If you're gonna pick them up to put them on top of Aron Kodesh, okay, I can understand. But just to start beating without being ready to pick up, I don't think you're justified. Okay, let's move on. Okay. So here's a very interesting question. A woman's listening to Kiddush, and she's not eating in the Sukkah. Have not enough space in the Sukkah. Man makes Kiddush, and he makes the Brocho Leishivah Sukkah, and she is now answering Amen. Is that Amen a Hefsek? Because she doesn't need the Brocho Leishivah Sukkah. So I saw, and this is, um, ‹Sefer› in Shas. Shabbos Gilchos has got a lot of discussion about this. Some say that it is a problem as a Hefsek because she can drink the wine. I have a

41:13 Speaker 1 simple answer. Let her make a Brocha on the wine herself. Finished. But fine. Others say that if she does want to sit in the Sukkah, so then it's not a Hefsek. Um, then there are-- Then he has-- But then it is from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who says that if you're listening to Kiddush, even though you don't need that Brocha of Leishivah Sukkah, and the case also about Shehecheyanu. The woman said a Shehecheyanu ‹vehalicht zenen›. She doesn't need the Shehecheyanu. But you are listening to Kiddush. And for the person making Kiddush, those Brochos are important, and you can answer Amen in any case. So, um, so even if a woman's, is sitting in-- not sitting in the Sukkah, she can still answer Amen for Leishiv- for, uh, Leishivah Sukkah. Um, certainly, if she is sitting in the Sukkah, she can answer Amen on the, uh, Leishivah Sukkah. And ‹biYotzer›, if she wishes, if she wants, as I said a minute ago, she can avoid the ‹shailah› of being ‹Yotzer› Kiddush, and the Hagafen, she'll make her own Brocha Hagafen, and then there's no question of Hefsek in any case. Right. Um, let's move on. So one of our listeners asked... So this, that's number seven. Wait a minute. Thought it was number six. Number seven. Oh, that's about the black and aravos. So I, I know what you've got in your sheet. I've added another question here, so the numbers may be slightly different. Okay. Now we have here, one of our listeners asked about what's

42:47 Speaker 1 so special about the ‹pesach es yodecha› pasuk. Isn't the pasuk before that, um, um, ‹einei cheil elechi sabeir ve'aten yodea lhem es achlam be'ito›, that Hashem provides food for all of us. Isn't that the same as ‹pesach es yodecha›? Why are we making such a fuss about the pasuk ‹pesach es yodecha›? So, all right. So the fuss is in the Gemara Brochos, you can see on the left of the screen. Says Rabbi Elazar in the name of Rabbi Avina, "Whoever says Tehillah ledovid three times a day, he is assured that he is a Ben Olam Habah." Why is that? If it's because it's got the Aleph Beis. So what, what about Asher Yismach Dochech of your test? It's got Aleph Beis times, times, times eight. Is even... And the answer is because it has Pesach Chodeszach. But then if it's a Pesach Chodeszach, but then how God will capital kuf lamed voov, it also has no solechem l'chol basar. So what's the difference? Why davka, what's so special about Asher? The answer is because it's got both. It's got the whole Aleph Beis, and it's got Pesach Chodeszach. All right, so what's so special about Pesach? You noticed I've emphasized the final letters of the three words, Pesach Chodesach, and they are the word chatach, which means a slice. Um, the mem is not missing in Asher, it's the nun is missing in Asher. The Torah discusses that. Um, so what's this slice? We see... Are you seeing this? This is also Chalifasi, Temurasi, Caparasi.

44:24 Speaker 1 It's also the Rosh Chodesach, um, chatach, and that relates to what we say, "Hachosech chayim l'chol chai." The word chatach means a portion. I explained to the Talmidim, Talmidos, that the life and parnassa is not a smorgasbord. It's not a buffet. A buffet, you can go over with a dish and take as much as you want. Parnassa and Bon Chayim, Zoyne, is all a package. You go on a plane, they bring you a package. This is your package of food. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Haibish designa-designates a package for each one of us. That's the chatach, and we ask Him that it should be a chosech chayim, it should be a good, a good portion. So that's, that's... Now, here you have on the, uh, the screen, we've got here from the Ben Ish Chai, who wrote a sefer on the Haggadah, the Gemara, and he talks about this piece of Gemara. And he says, "All right, Pesach Chodesach has got the Shem of Parnassa, which is chatach. It also has, um, in addition to Pesach Chodesach, which has the Sofer table as chatach, but also the word umazbia. So shin is three hundred, mem and nun is fifty, that's three hundred and fifty. Ayin is, um, seventy. That's brings us to four hundred and twenty. And then vav and beis is eight, four hundred and twenty-eight. So tof, chof, ches. So umazbia is also the same as chatach. So we have in the passe Pesach Chodesach, umazbia, we've got the remez to chatach twice. Um,

46:06 Speaker 1 and he says also in the words, "Nosein lechem l'chol basar." Now, you look at the Gemara over here. "Nosein lechem l'chol basar." So you have nosein is a tof in the middle, lechem is a cho- a ches in the middle, and l'chol is a chof in the middle. So you've got the, the remez. For this, this group of letters, chatach, is also nosein lechem, lechem l'chol basar. So he's giving us a deeper understand-- Well, on the rem- remez level in the Gemara. Why don't we-- What's-- Why Pesach Chodesach? Why not nosein lechem l'chol basar? You wanna have a remez for chatach. Well, nosein l'chol- lechem l'chol basar, you also have a remez to the word, to the, to the letters of chatach. To which he answers, which is not neat, not, not pshuto of the Gemara. He says, "It is b'itarti, that in Pesach Chodesach, umazbia, you've got chatach twice. Whereas in nosein lechem l'chol basar, you only have it once." So that's how he learns pshat in the Gemara, uh, of, uh, this, um, the, the, the, the advantage of nosein lechem l'chol basar-- Oh, oh sorry, of, of Pesach Chodesach over, uh, um, o-over nosein lechem l'chol basar. It's got the remez to chatach twice. Fine. Um, before we leave this point, the Rosh Chodesach of Pesach Chodesach is pei alef yud, which is ninety-one, which I think is, um, sixty-five and twenty-six. Does that make sense? Sixty-five and twenty-six. Sixty-five is eighty. Yeah. Five and... Yeah. So it's eighty, it's ninety-one. So

47:46 Speaker 1 omei, um, so it's also-- Omei is also the same gematria, um, which is the, the two shemas of Havaya and Adni. So you have that also in the Pesach Chodesach. What I, what I'm seeing now, though, the, in the Alter Rebe's siddur, which I'm sorry I didn't put on the screen, the words Pesach Chodesach have got inverted segols. There's six inverted segols. Three on the beginning of the three words, and three on the end of the three words. There is no emphasis on the umazbia. Whereas here, the Kav HaChai, the Ben Ish Chai, is showing the remez also in the word umazbia, which is not alluded. So in o-ther words, in the Alter Rebe's siddur, much as he tried to avoid any Kabbalistic, um, stuff, but there are a few places here and there which have got little reimzos, and Pesach Chodesach is one of those which has got the remez to, um, the Rosh Chodesach and the Chodesach of pei alef yud and the chatach. Okay. Um, someone called me today and asked me to address in this year, so I'm gonna close this. Um, I've got two, two points left which I want to address. One is that I mentioned before about the, the feedback about women eating in the Sukkah, how it used to be back in the day. Also, last week, I mentioned about if the pitom fell off the esrog, and it's not so poshut that it's posut. There are, there are, there are circumstances where you'd be really allowed

49:19 Speaker 1 to make a bracha. So this woman tells me that one year, the pitom fell off the Rebbe's esrog, uh, which was being used by the, by the, uh, kahilla, one after the other. And, um, immediately, they brought the Rebbe's esrog instead, and they continued with the Rebbe's esrog. I wanna just say what I remember hearing about this, that whoever it was went to the Rebbe, and who-- It was an elderly person who had dropped the esrog, and he-- And the person came in to the Rebbe, whoever, it was Rabbi Halleck, whoever, and said, "The esrog became posut." And so and so-- The Rebbe said, "I don't want to hear who it was. Don't tell me who it was." The Rebbe stopped him from saying who was the man who dropped it. He wasn't interested. He didn't want the person to feel, uh, you know, uncomfortable. And they brought, brought in another esrog. So of course, l'chatchila, uh, we-- If you're using esrog with a pitom, you want to have the pitom there. Um, if you didn't have another esrog well, whatever, yeah. You had another esrog which was of poor quality, and this esrog has no pitom, then there's room to make a beracha on it even, as I mentioned, Al Trei V'Shlosh. Finally, since we're finishing off in with about esrog, and that is someone asked me what to do with an esrog from Eretz Yisrael. Many of us have used esrogim from Calabria, but there are those who do have esrogim from Eretz

50:41 Speaker 1 Yisrael. What are you meant to do with the esrog? Because it does have kedushat shevi'it. It's-- If it was picked from the esrog tree before Rosh Hashanah, it has a status of shmitah, and you have to treat it with kedushat shevi'it. So, what are you meant to do with the esrog? Now, you may have heard of some people sending them back. I don't know whether there is a, uh, established service on sending esrogim back to Israel. I haven't heard of such a service. Really, though, that seems to be a, an extra hidur. There is a din of, I want to do spell out, is, "Le'ochlah v'lo l'hefseyd." The es-- The shmitah of produce is le'ochlah v'lo l'hefseyd. To be eaten, not to be wasted. Not to be ruined. So, to take an esrog, which is edible, and to put it in the garbage is not allowed if it's esrog from shmitah. What I do see is that you should-- that it's recommended you should take the esrog and make it into a edible... into a jam or something. Uh, make it edible. And it should be eaten before Chaiyar Shvat. There is a concept called zman habir. The fruit of shmitah. Once that pro-- that, um, that fruit is no longer available in the wild, we are not allowed to retain it in our private possession. So, "Kol ol echai yamin hasadeh kalel ivehem tocham mina bayis." If it's no longer available in the wild, then you shouldn't be holding it on at home. That

52:19 Speaker 1 time when a pa-- that particular product, that pro- produce is not available in the wild, that's called zman habir. And what I've got here in front of me, um, I've got here a sefer called Dinai Shevi'it, which was picked out. It had it in Tosafot mezayen. Um, and it-- that's why he's advising here that before Chaiyar Shvat, which is, is apparently the zman habir when esrogim are no longer available in the wild, which I don't really understand because they are-- officially, they stay in the tree for the whole time. But be that as it may, that's what they're saying. So it sh-- uh, you should make it into a food and, and eat it. Um, if you're doing that, whatever you're not going to eat, peels or whatever, which you're not going to eat, um, they should be kept in a bag until they go moldy. And once they've gone moldy, then you're allowed to discard them. So again, um, you can take the... You can. Perhaps recommended to make the esrog into a food, uh, and eat it before Shvat. And whatever parts are, um, not going to be eaten, like peels, et cetera, be kept until they go, uh, become in-inedible. At that point, you are allowed to dispose of them and then-- as you'd normally dispose of, uh, you know, waste. All right. That's what I can suggest for you to, for tonight, for now. And, uh, I wish you all good evening.

53:43 Speaker 2 Uh, Baskin.

53:45 Speaker 1 Let me just, uh... Yeah, yes, Dov. Yeah.

53:47 Speaker 2 Um, I asked this question about the sending it back. All the people who sell this esrogim from Israel-

53:53 Speaker 1 Yeah.

53:53 Speaker 2 -have said that they will take it back after Sukkot, and they send it back. It's their-

53:57 Speaker 1 Oh, wonderful. Oh, thank you for that. So, all right. So now, now we know that you can, can send it back. And I guess there's gonna be a big industry of making esrog jam in Eretz Yisrael from all of this esrogim. Wonderful. And they have to be eaten before Shvat. Um, right. I just want to just say that next week, we'll, Be'ezrat Hashem, have the same time. But the following week already, after the time change, we'll switch to the Motza'i Shabbos slot. And I'm thinking of doing it earlier in the evening. Rather than waiting till eight thirty, I'd like to do it more like seven thirty PM, which will then allow, um, the later part of the evening for, to participate in Melavat Malkah, et cetera. It's Shnas HaKhel. Baruch Hashem, the shir has developed because of COVID. But as one of our guests over Yom Tov explained, Hakhel is the, is the answer to, to COVID. COVID means everyone's isolated and insulated in their own homes, and Hakhel is where people get together. So Be'ezrat Hashem, I'd like to, um, make it that we can be-- have the shir and still be able to participate in communal events for Motza'i Shabbos. So, I wish you a Gutten Shabbos and, uh, a fine Shabbos Bereishis and, uh, good-